2007丹麦INDEX设计奖现在征集进行中，奖项设为BODY, HOME, WORK, PLAY, COMMUNITY（身体、家、工作、玩、社会）5个类别 ，每个奖项10万欧元奖金。2007年八月在丹麦的哥本哈根揭晓，包括设计师、学生、设计机构、商业人士、公司或者任何个人都可以参加提名，不需要付费，也不需要特定的条件，只有一个要求，提名的设计必须有能够提高大多数人类生活的潜力。来自全球设计界的权威人士将会组成设计评委对前100名提名进行评选，评选将于2006年11月18日结束。
    
INDEX竞赛希望引燃设计者讨论重要与具可能性的设计议题，并鼓励设计师可以针对改善世界人类生活的设计议题。INDEX专门颁发给那些在关于BODY, HOME, WORK, PLAY, COMMUNITY这些项目的不寻常设计，和其他设计奖项不同，INDEX不用传统的分法对设计进行分类，比如平面设计、工业设计等等，因为这样分类并没有完全体现设计的趣味。INDEX要求提名者纵向思考设计和产业领域，然后选择出对设计的最终对象“人”真正有用的分类。

官方网站：http://www.index2007.dk

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英文版消息：

INTRODUCTION TO INDEX: AWARD 2007

Design to Improve Life

INDEX: is a non-profit foundation that every second year in Copenhagen hands out INDEX: Award, presents international design exhibitions and a summit for creative leaders

INDEX: Award is the biggest design award in the world.
Every second year five awards – each of ?100.000 - are presented in the award categories: Body, Home, Work, Play and Community.

This focus differentiates the INDEX: Award from other design awards in a number of ways. Firstly, INDEX: does not categorize design according to traditional labels – visual design, apparel, industrial design, etc. – since these categories do not fully reflect the interdisciplinary approach employed with the most interesting modern design. INDEX: asks that nomination bodies to think horizontally – across design categories and industries – when selecting the best nominees for the five categories vital to human life: Body, Home, Work, Play and Community.

Next, INDEX: is concerned with both tangible and intangible design. Traditionally design has been perceived as styling and addressing function. INDEX: shares this view but more importantly views design as a problem-solving tool. Better solutions are not created just by producing newer and better products. They are also created through the design of better overall strategies, better total concepts and better services, which is why these forms of design are also eligible for nomination.

To understand our design thinking - please read below:

INDEX: DESIGN FOCUS

INDEX: focuses on Design to Improve Life – e.g. design that substantially improves important aspects of peoples' lives.

DESIGN: A TRADITIONAL DEFINITION

Design is used as both a noun and a verb. Design as a verb refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a new object. As a noun, design is used both for the final plan or proposal (a drawing, model, or other description), or the result of implementing that plan or proposal (the object produced).

GIVING FORM – THE CORE COMPETENCE OF DESIGNERS

The core competence of a designer is the capacity to give form to the objects we surround ourselves with. Whether the design is good or not is determined by the quality of the user's experience. It's crucial to the user experience that the designer in the process of giving form considers function, form, material, construction, accessible resources, conditions of production and distribution and aesthetic.

Good design unites all these components in a coherent and aesthetic whole.

TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE DESIGN/THE WORK OF A CONTEMPORARY DESIGNER

The designer's capacity to give form is used in order to shape the products we surround ourselves with.
These products are no longer limited to physical objects like furniture, cars or house wares. As society evolves, so do the things we produce and use. Therefore, contemporary designers also give form to contemporary products such as virtual and digital products and services. Artefacts of contemporary design can be tangible or virtual, physical or digital.

Likewise products are no longer stand-alone artefacts – they belong in a larger system and context. It is important to consider the combination of the various parts amounting to user experience in whole. The role of the designer has become increasingly complex as they have to consider and interpret multiple factors on multiple levels in order to create a successful product.

Contemporary design is now being used as a tool to convey a company's brand values at various stages of the user's journey. Basically a designer must have empathy with the user and be aware of real people's needs. The result must be relevant in the context of use and must be considered in its whole lifecycle.

NEW DESIGN PROCESSES.

In recent years, design competences, methods and processes have increasingly been applied to problems not conventionally considered “design”:
In the future designers will be more involved on a strategic level in businesses and organisations, designing development programs, strategies, systems and new ventures. Designers also are involved in shaping public sector policies and programs. Not only is the designer's way of thinking infusing innovation, it's a core ingredient of user centred innovation.

New design processes combine traditional design preoccupations like user orientation, visualisation, prototyping and creative intensity with new requirements of production in the knowledge economy such as advanced knowledge inputs, research rigor, technology forecasting, strategic future scenarios, and creative collaboration with many other fields of expertise, in cross disciplinary teams. It is this combination of human insight combined with technology and future visioning with prototyping that makes new design processes so valuable for user centred innovation.

DESIGN AND AESTHETICS

To INDEX: aesthetics deals with the attributes of artefacts that are perceivable by our senses and that elicit an affective emotional response. Aesthetics is about how we perceive with our senses. My emotions register that “I like that more than I like this.”  What we call “the aesthetic response” is shaped by individual, subjective experiences as much as it is constructed by the cultural norms of my society.

Aesthetics is basically about differences. My senses enable me to perceive differences such as form, surfaces, tactility, sound, and experiences.

Difference is what makes something stand out from uniform similarity.
And that is what INDEX: wants to honour, the outstanding design - that making a world of difference in the world.

SUMMING UP

The objective of INDEX: Award is to inspire business, designers and societies alike to unfold the human and commercial potential in Design to Improve Life, by using new and user centred design thinking in any innovation.

INDEX: will inspire by presenting the best examples of Design to Improve Life, award the very best and give access to the underlying processes and thinking.

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